I Want To Preach, But...

No where in the Bible does God command that a preacher go to 'school' in order to preach.

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Jamal5000,
If you are in the process of acquiring a PhD, you probably have developed enough discipline where studying on your own will give you a good foundation in making you an able handler of the Word of God.

That being said, you will probably desire to gain further training because you recognize the benefit of the rigors of organized study. I would recommend you pursue further study if you sense the Lord has called you, but look for opportunities to use the gifts and abilities He has given you even as you exercise and develop them further.

 

I had a seminary prof who, early in my own seminary career, was earning an M.Div. After graduating, he went and earned a Ph.D. That gave him a second Ph.D. as he had been a chemical engineer earlier in life before he got saved.

 

If you feel you would like some Bible training after the phd you might consider a three year Bible institute, it would give you the bible without reruning all the other stuff.

Another option would be to take some core courses at a Bible college or seminary. Things like study metods, interpretation, Bible etc.

As to the point of your question. God Calls the man and prepares the man. Follow His leading and ya got it made

 

Jesus didn't go to a seminary. Neither did His disciples. Paul apparently had rabbinnical training. He was the exception and the rule. And he considered his background to be dung for the sake of Christ.

The seminary system is unfortunately. Teachers should be taught and trained in the local church and by itinerant ministers who take 'apprentices' with them. Itinerant ministers can then teach other new local churches that are planted. that is the Biblical pattern. See II Timothy 2:2. It is unfortunate that seminary education is seen as so necessary, that it would lead one to think that seminary education is necessary.

George Patterson is a Conservative Baptist seminary professor who has planted churches and coaches church planters. He and his coworker put out a newsletter called Mentornet. In one issue, they advise against sending leaders from new church plants to special schools. The reason is that graduates often see leaders that emerge from within the church, who do not go to special schools, as second class. This hinders the natural growthof leaders from within loca churches, and hinders a fast growing church planting movement from multiplying.

The apostles Paul and Barnabas rpeached the Gospel in several cities. later, they came back and the lord had prepared men to lead in every church- men from within each local church, not professional hired gus from the outside. These elders they appointed were the 'pastors' of the churches. There was more than one pastor in one local church. They didn't get in that ministry by going to a special school. The Lord prepared them in teh training ground of the local church. This is a Biblical pattern.

Unfortunately, some churches are so brainwashed by the traditions of the day that they hire preachers because they have seminary degrees and speak well, even if they don't meet up to the bilbical qualifications for overseers. And many who are Biblically qualified to be overseers are overlooked because churches want to find some paid professional that they don't know to be their pastor.

Btw, you can preach without being a local overseer. A call to prach doesn't necessarily mean one is called to oversee the church as an elder/bishop (what some call 'pastor.') The Greek words translated into English as 'preach' generally refer to evangelism, rather than teaching loud to Christians in church from behind a pulpit.

Love knowledge. Seek it. Pursue it. Study. but don't think a diploma from a seminary or Bible college has any spiritual power, or confers any spiritual authority on you.

 

Right, it doesnt confer any spiritual authority on a person, but it sure helps to "rightly divide the word of truth" when one can read it in its original form.

 

You are right in a way. But how many preachers and laypeople do you know personally who are discipling anyone. My past church didn’t like the fact that I stood against their ungodly ways and asked me to leave. But in that church some were trained and left to do ministry elsewhere. As soon as I quit pastoring I met with 20 people whom I had met who wanted help growing. Nobody gave them to me. God did though. When I pastored I spent so much time with troublemakers and infants. Over the years I have found that some of the laziest and most unwilling were those who came to Christ in the church or were raised in the church.

I did replant a church several years ago. Those people had ten left after most of the church left. In talking with them they told me they were willing to do whatever was necessary. I told them I expected them to be in Bible study with me each week and to take turns doing ministry with me. After about one year one of the men at the Bible study told everyone, “We need this.” He quit his involvement with the denomination at the state level and did more work at home. In fact he had not ever knocked on doors or led a Bible study. Within one year he had done all of that. He had started two Bible studies in the community and led others in knocking on doors. . The ladies had started an outreach in the community. They came up with great ideas and carried them out. Once a month the church knocked on doors.

After I was there one of the ladies told me I was caustic. I asked her did I expect anything more than Jesus does. She looked at me and said nothing.

People came to Christ and were discipled. Today the church owns 20 acres of prime land and has built a church building.

When we have made disciples we have made more like Christ.

The question is not how many we have led to Christ but who’s living for Jesus Christ because of our life.

 

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Two proofs against seminary have been set forth:

"Jesus didn't go to a seminary. Neither did His disciples."

Let's see just how much seminary would Jesus - God need to know what He needs to know about God?

Secondly, just how much more than three years of walking and talking to Christ 24-7 would they need to be properly trained. To suggest they weren't well trained would call the Lord's wisdom into question me thinks

Of course they didn't go to seminary, they didn't need to!

 

Maybe we should all sell our church buildings and just congregate in the local Jewish synagogue, too..

 

Yeah, right. And look where we are now. Arminian here, Calvinist there, Tongues here, Miracle healing there, Holiness here, Antinomianism there, Pelagians here, Semi-Pelagians there, Modern Arminians here, This-number-of-points Calvinists there, Dispensationalist here, No dispensation there, etc., etc., etc.

I attended three years of Bible College. And except for myself, the others in my class have a deep hatred of the Doctrines of Grace, commonly called Calvinism, because we were taught from First Year to the Third Year that Calvinism is a heretical doctrine.

Point being: Seminary will only teach you what it believes to be the Word of God, usually reflecting the doctrines of its denomination.

The Savior Himself said:

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come" John 16:13.

The Holy Spirit is still the Spirit of Truth and the guide into all truth.

 

Paul did evangelism in the local synagogues. Early Christians gerneally met in homes for their meetings. If you suggested stop building church buildings and plant new churches in homes, I would agree with you. Some churches ignore some of the things the Bible teaches the church to spend money on (widows, the poor, evangelists, etc.) and spend their money to pay back a loan on the building. The borrower is the servant of the lender.

 

I attended three years of Bible College. And except for myself, the others in my class have a deep hatred of the Doctrines of Grace, commonly called Calvinism, because we were taught from First Year to the Third Year that Calvinism is a heretical doctrine.

Point being: Seminary will only teach you what it believes to be the Word of God, usually reflecting the doctrines of its denomination.

</font>[/QUOTE]I am sorry you had such a negative experience with Bible College. (Which is not seminary.) I never once had a prof in seminary tell me what to believe, or even what his own views were. I am thinking specifically of Systematic Theology classes where Calvinism/Arminianism were taught. We were taught the different views/systems and left to decide for ourselves. The same goes for eschatology. I was totally shocked to learn that there were so many different eschatalogical viewpoints. But never once did the professor say where he stood or where I should stand. Your comments sound as if we are better off stayiing ignorant.

 

My impression of Bible Colleges, based on their students, is that a lot of them indoctrinate young people to think a certain way, more than educate them to be able to reason from the scriptures. Bible Colleges can be a means of perpetuating false doctrine. Seminaries can, too, but seminaries try to teach people who to think. Still, liberal theology has been perpetuated by seminaries.

Also, one can graduate from a seminary and not be elder-material according to scripture. But one can still get a job as a pastor. Many people who are, Biblically, elder-potential, can be passed over in favor of the seminary-educated professional.

The whole professional ministry system for the local pastorate is quasi-Biblical at best. In the Bible, we don't see preachers 'trying out' to get hired by a church to be a professional pastor. The local pastors emerged from among the men in the congregation. The apostles appointed men from within the churches. The chruch was the Bible college of the first century- that and the apprenticeship offered by traveling ministers of the Gospel. These are biblical pattersn we shoudl emulate. paul _commanded_ Christians to hold to the traditions that he had taught.

 

Amen!